Changing how You Feel about Yourself

While feeling good about yourself isn’t the only road to loving your life and finding happiness, it certainly is one of the most important. Remember, change starts with you and so it is up to you to work on improving your self-esteem so that you can unlock happiness and live the life you want to be living.

But, of course it’s easier said than done and improving the way you feel about yourself takes work, commitment, and consistency. Self-care is at its foundation. Even if you were to spend time going through numerous exercises aimed at helping you improve your self-esteem, if you are neglecting the care of yourself, your self-esteem will continue to suffer. 

Let’s start with reviewing the basis of where to begin when you want to feel good about who you are- taking care of your body. Physical self-care. This often is the easiest place to start because you can feel the effects of physical self-care relatively quickly. Moving your body, fueling it with nutritious foods, hydrating by drinking ample amounts of water each day, and ensuring that you are getting enough quality sleep are all very important.

Start with taking care of your body.

Also important in the building of self-esteem is to recognize the advantages of why it is low. Yes, you read that correctly. For years, you may have lived without or with low self-esteem and it’s become your comfort zone. Perhaps you wallowed in the lack of risk that came from it. Low expectations and so low chances of disappointing yourself or others. You didn’t have to worry about others accepting you because you didn’t accept yourself. 

Having no or low self-esteem kept the world predictable. Self-esteem often comes from familial patterns, meaning that it is how you were raised and the way you were treated by your own parents as well as their own levels of self-esteem that influenced how you feel about yourself. Because of this, low self-esteem feels normal and again, comfortable. It also keeps you far from developing self-defeating pride, which may seem sinful and even dangerous.

Low self-esteem can feel familiar, safe, and comfortable.

Despite these advantages to not liking yourself, there are disadvantages of low self-esteem that arguably outweigh the advantages and push you to do something about it (like work on liking yourself). First of all, it’s painful and makes life no fun at all. When you’re going through life not liking yourself nor accepting of yourself, life is drab. Studies show that low self-esteem can even lead to developing diseases. Yes, physical diseases and even chronic pain! 

Low self-esteem keeps you trapped in a vicious cycle. You don’t like yourself, so you don’t try. Others treat you poorly and don’t expect much from you, which confirms your low opinion of yourself. Not liking yourself does not lead to happiness, that’s for sure. Not that happiness is the end all and be all, but it definitely makes for a more enjoyable and satisfying life.

Low self-esteem keeps you trapped in a vicious cycle. 

Once you determine the advantages and disadvantages of keeping your self-esteem as it is, the question remains, do you need to improve your self-esteem? Do you want to and are you willing to do the work to improve it? Do the benefits of gaining self-esteem and liking who you are outweigh the benefits of self-dislike? 

The question remains, do you need to improve your self-esteem?

Once you decide that you will do what you need to to improve your self-esteem, it will be on you to make the changes. The good news is, I can be your guide. You do not have to work on improving your self-esteem alone. I can help you build your self-esteem by focusing on the three main factors that are part of the road to high self-esteem, including unconditional self-worth, self-care, and self-love.

If you want to get going towards liking yourself- well, really, loving yourself- and living a life that brings you joy and fulfillment, then schedule a discovery call with me. Click here. I’ll share with you what the road will look like and we’ll get clear on how we can walk it together. 

Let's talk about it...

What advantages and disadvantages do you personally have for not having a high self-esteem or for not liking yourself? What would be the positive consequences of having a realistic and appreciative opinion of yourself?

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